Details
Synopsis
Visual and verbal puns punctuate the story of Max's day as a taxicab driver delivering passengers around the city.
| Size | | Height: | 10.3 in | | Width: | 9.3 in | | Thickness: | 0.5 in | | Weight: | 12.8 oz |
Industry Reviews
Electric colors energize this chuckler about cab driver Max, who works in a city where a "fork in the road" is a giant piece of tableware and "baseball diamonds" are sold at the jewelry store. His passengers take the puns in stride, even though a "spring shower" rains metal coils and a "park bench" is a sidewalk seat featuring a fountain and tiny trees. At the end of the day, Max goes home to "fix dinner" using a hammer and nails, of course. Filler text appears in black ink, capital letters in red ink signal key words watch for these verbal cues, then look to the illustration for the payoff. Grover (Circles and Squares Everywhere!) shocks the eye by placing outlandish complementary hues edge-to-edge in wild patterns of opaque paint. Most of the jokes are understandable, but the pictures help to remind readers of homonyms' multiple meanings. A few fall short, like when going "bowling" means arranging bowls on a streetside table, and young ones may be thrown by the intentional misspellings (e.g., Max drives a pilot to an airplane "hanger," and takes a child to where the "tooth ferry" docks). Nevertheless, an experienced audience will breeze through the intense visuals and humorous wordplay. Ages 7-up. (Sept.)
Lopate
K-Gr 2 Grover's bright acrylics are easy to spot. Squashed and askew, the almost surreal paintings show recognizable images in impossible juxtapositions. Wordplay and visual puns accompany the meandering story of a taxi driver who encounters synonymous idioms like a "fork in the road" or the "tooth ferry" everywhere he turns. Preschoolers might enjoy the bright, flattened drawings and can hunt for Max's yellow taxi in most pictures but probably won't get the jokes. With a little encouragement second graders can successfully play the "what's wrong with this picture" game while trying to grasp a confusing language concept, but they may find the illustrations and story a bit simplistic. Some of the puns are weak ("rock" concert) or occasionally cryptic. Nevertheless, children will giggle at the eclectic city scenes with the Fisher Price-like stiff poses of kids, bands, "toe" truck drivers, and Max's taxi navigating a sky full of socks ("all socked in"). John Sigwald, Unger Memorial Library, Plainview, TX
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